


The Terrible Gap

by dedicatedfollower467



Series: Time has Brought Your Heart to Me [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Roommates, can be read as gen or pre-ship, oh my god they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 18:32:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17688668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dedicatedfollower467/pseuds/dedicatedfollower467
Summary: Theta Sigma wakes up in the middle of the night because his new roommate is having a nightmare.





	The Terrible Gap

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning: I haven't read a single Doctor Who novel and I know nothing about canon Academy-era Theta and Koschei. All my characterization is based on other people's fanfic and that one Twelve episode with Clara (which is heavily referenced in this fic)
> 
> Part of a series, but as with all the fics in this series, it reads as a standalone fic, too.

When Theta woke up in the middle of the night, he wasn’t really sure why. At first he thought maybe he’d had another nightmare, because he had them all the time, and he could feel a hint of fear in the corner of his mind. And as he sat up, he realized he was panting, and thought for sure it must have been his own nightmare.

Then he heard the _thump_ from the other side of the room and dove under the covers like a frightened rat.

Now there were rustling noises, and a choked-off breath, and the quiet slump from blankets falling to the ground. Random _thump-thump_ noises kept coming, and he flinched at each one. Hearts beating in his ears, Theta peeked out from under the bedspread into the dark room.

Luckily, there was just enough light for him to see the bed across the way, where his brand-new roommate was thrashing in his sleep, kicking and swinging his arms. The _thumps_ that scared Theta so much were from the bed hitting the walls when the other boy kicked hard enough.

Theta looked at his roommate, trying to see if he was being attacked by some invisible monster or if he was just having a nightmare. Everyone told him that he was too old believe in invisible monsters that lived under the bed, but he’d _felt_ one. He _knew_ they were real.

It didn’t look like his roommate was being attacked by one of the monsters, though. It looked like he was just having a bad nightmare - a _really_ bad one, Theta decided, as another blanket slid to the ground from the kicking. If it had been Theta having a nightmare like that, he would want somebody to wake him up.

But there was the _whole_ space of the room between his bed and his roommate’s. And there was the terrible six-inch gap beneath his bed, where _anything_ could be hiding.

Bravely, Theta scrunched up his face and stepped out, and was very glad when no fingers shot out to grab his ankle.

He crossed the room and squatted by his roommate’s bed, watching the other boy twist and turn, his face all screwed up like he was hurting.

“Koschei?” he said. He reached out and touched his shoulder.

Koschei went totally still then, like he’d been turned to stone, except for the deep heavy breaths that rattled like he had a bad cough. “Please don’t hurt me,” he said, words which didn’t seem to fit in Koschei’s mouth.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “It’s me, Theta Sigma. You were having a nightmare.”

Koschei’s eyes opened up, but Theta felt for some reason like Koschei wasn’t looking at him. He wanted to look over his shoulder for another invisible monster (though of course, he wouldn’t be able to _see_ an invisible monster, that was the point of them being invisible), but decided not to.

“Koschei?”

He was shaking now, curling up into a little ball on the bed. In the dim light, Theta could see tears shining on Koschei’s eyelashes like tiny stars.

He didn’t know Koschei very well. They hadn’t even been roommates for a full week. And Theta was pretty sure that Koschei thought he was clumsy and silly and not very smart. And he was pretty sure that Koschei was rude and loud and didn’t like anybody much.

But he was crying, and shivering, so Theta sat down on the bed next to him and put an arm around his shoulders, rubbing up and down in a way he sort of remembered someone doing to him, once.

Koschei jerked away from him, and Theta leaned back, thinking he’d done something wrong. But Koschei just looked at him with his dark eyes full of tears for a long, long moment, and then buried his head in Theta’s shoulder.

Theta wrapped his arms around Koschei’s back and rubbed in small circles.

“It’s okay,” Theta said. “You’re safe. No one’s gonna hurt you.”

As the words left his mouth, his temporal sense opened up. Something like an echo of the past, or maybe the future, bounced through his brain like a lost ball. Theta didn’t try to hold onto it - that only gave him headaches and left him frustrated when he couldn’t remember the stray thoughts.

“You’re safe,” he said again, but this time, he felt like a liar.

When Theta woke up the next morning, his neck was sore and there was a heavy weight on his chest. He blinked and moved a little, and then realized the weight was Koschei, lying across him. They’d fallen asleep still sitting up on Koschei’s bed.

Theta squirmed, trying to find a more comfortable position. That woke Koschei, who sat up so quickly that he almost smashed Theta’s nose. The other boy’s eyes were wide with fright, with grimy tear tracks on his cheeks. When Theta reached out to touch him, he threw himself off the bed and landed with a _thump_ on the hard floor.

Koschei ran to the bathroom, leaving Theta alone in his bed. Theta swallowed, and walked to his own bed, and decided he wouldn’t talk about it if Koschei didn’t want to.


End file.
